The remarkable untold story of Thomas Jeffersonâs three daughtersâtwo white and free, one black and enslavedâand the divergent paths they forged in a newly independent America
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FINALIST FOR THE GEORGE WASHINGTON PRIZE âĒ âBeautifully written . . . To a nuanced study of Jeffersonâs two white daughters, Martha and Maria, [Kerrison] innovatively adds a discussion of his only enslaved daughter, Harriet Hemings.ââThe New York Times Book Review
Thomas Jefferson had three daughters: Martha and Maria by his wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson, and Harriet by his slave Sally Hemings. Although the three women shared a father, the similarities end there. Martha and Maria received a fine convent school education while they lived with their father during his diplomatic posting in Paris. Once they returned home, however, the sisters found their options limited by the laws and customs of early America. Harriet Hemings followed a different path. She escaped slaveryâapparently with the assistance of Jefferson himself. Leaving Monticello behind, she boarded a coach and set off for a decidedly uncertain future.
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For this groundbreaking triple biography, history scholar Catherine Kerrison has uncovered never-before-published documents written by the Jefferson sisters, as well as letters written by members of the Jefferson and Hemings families. The richly interwoven stories of these strong women and their fight to shape their own destinies shed new light on issues of race and gender that are still relevant todayâand on the legacy of one of our most controversial Founding Fathers.
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Praise for Jeffersonâs Daughters
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âA fascinating glimpse of where we have been as a nation . . . Catherine Kerrison tells us the stories of three of Thomas Jeffersonâs children, who, due to their gender and race, lived lives whose most intimate details are lost to time.ââUSA Today
âA valuable addition to the history of Revolutionary-era America.ââThe Boston Globe
âA thought-provoking nonfiction narrative that reads like a novel.ââBookPage